The second branch of The Store, the free grocery in Nashville, Tennessee, started by country singer Brad Paisley and actor Kimberly Williams-Paisley, is not new. It opened on January 14, 2026, on the campus of TriStar Centennial Medical Center, and the item began circling widely again over the weekend of October 17 and 18 as if it had just happened. The real dates matter, and so do the newest figures the nonprofit itself has put out.
The freshest of those arrived on September 18, when The Store reported that 3,270 people had volunteered there so far in 2026, putting in close to 25,000 hours between them. Its reporting software prices that time at $868,381.13, a number the post admitted was precise about something “nearly impossible to quantify.”
How a free grocery store works
This is not a pantry handing out pre-packed boxes. Shoppers walk the aisles and choose their own produce, meat, dairy and pantry staples, plus non-food basics such as diapers and toothpaste. Nobody walks in off the street, though. Every customer is referred by a partner organization, among them a family shelter, a veterans’ group and a program for people leaving prison, and the original 2018 plan set the referral term at one year.
The couple took the idea from Unity Shoppe in Santa Barbara, California, after working there with their sons. “Most people don’t want handouts. They want dignity and respect,” Paisley said when the project was unveiled with Belmont University, his alma mater, in October 2018.
From announcement to second store
- October 2018: The Paisleys and Belmont announce the project for a lot at 2005 12th Ave. South, beside the university’s Ministry Center, with a $1.2 million construction target.
- 2020: The first store opens on Belmont’s campus.
- August 2024: The nonprofit says a second site is coming to TriStar Centennial, then pencilled in for summer 2025.
- January 14, 2026: The second store opens on the ground floor of the hospital’s B Garage at 311 23rd Ave. North, roughly six months behind that first target.
- September 2026: The Store posts its year-to-date count of 3,270 volunteers and nearly 25,000 hours.
What the second site changes
The Belmont store served 2,200 families in 2025, according to the January announcement, and its waiting list had grown long. The Centennial store is close to three times the size of the original, has more storage and volunteer room, and also stocks emergency clothing. Chief executive Collen Mayer said at the opening that it would let the organization “serve twice as many neighbors.” If that holds, the two stores together would reach roughly 4,400 families a year, double the 2025 total.
The volunteer arithmetic is worth a look too. Dividing $868,381.13 by 25,000 hours works out to about $34.70 for every donated hour. Spread across 3,270 people, the average volunteer has given a little under eight hours this year, but the load is lopsided: the same post said one regular, identified only as CJ, had logged 409 hours, more than ten working weeks.
A famous couple and a store where nothing costs anything make for an easy share, which helps explain why the item keeps resurfacing. The part that tends to drop out is who pays and who works. Corporate and private donations covered the buildout of the new site, and the shelves are stocked by an unpaid crew far larger than the small staff. Williams-Paisley said in January that the long-term hope is for customers to come back one day “as one of our volunteers.”
With two locations running, The Store says it now needs 275 volunteers every week, which comes to about 14,300 volunteer slots over a full year.
Further reading
- Wikipedia: Brad Paisley
- Belmont University: Alumnus Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams-Paisley announce The Store
Image: Pete Souza, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
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